Lions, Eagles and Seahawks beat rivals on Thanksgiving Day

(Reuters) - The Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions both served up U.S. Thanksgiving Day routs to move atop their divisions while the Seattle Seahawks boosted their playoff hopes with a commanding win on Thursday.

Football is as much a Thanksgiving Day tradition as turkey and pumpkin pie and the Lions served up the day's first course by mauling the Chicago Bears 34-17 before the Eagles thumped the Dallas Cowboys 33-10.

The defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks (8-4) capped the tasty tripleheader with a 19-3 win over San Francisco to move within a game of the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals and leave the 49ers in danger of falling out of the playoff chase.

As expected the game between the two West Coast rivals was a bruising battle from the start that featured two of the league's hardest hitting teams.

The Seahawks' top-ranked defense lived up to its fierce reputation by limiting the 49ers to 164 total yards of offense and a 40-yard Phil Dawson field goal.

An interception by Seattle's All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman set up the game's only touchdown, Russell Wilson hitting Robert Turbin with 13-yard strike while Steven Hauschka handled the rest of scoring with four field goals.

"It's a huge game to win, on their turf it is pretty tough to do," said Wilson, who completed 15 passes for 236 yards. "One game at a time, we know there are a lot of great teams to play, NFC is not easy to win against, we are excited about the opportunity, championship mindset we'll see what happens."

Dallas and Philadelphia came into the game as co-leaders of the NFC East but when time expired it was the Eagles alone atop the division after quarterback Mark Sanchez ran for a touchdown and threw for another while LeSean McCoy rumbled for 159 yards and a score.

The Eagles took control early with Sanchez diving in from two yards out to cap an impressive opening drive before hooking up with Jordan Matthews on a 27-yard touchdown strike on their next possession for a 14-0 first quarter lead.
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